Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

Suppressionfire,

Your office is truly an inspiration to many of us who have never tried their hands on scratching details. I take my hat off sir...

Randy and Stikpusher,

Still thinking about it but right now i am inclined to agree with Stik... The Korean (often russian piloted) Migs just have so much more "glamour" and history... On the other hand the decals for the russian one look stunning with a big red lightning bolt on the tail....

But while im relentlessly torturing my three braincells pondering over this dilemma i do have some little news to share:

I have finished assembly of the engine and mounted it to the front fuselage. After that i have assembled the rear fuselage and the trolley on which it will rest.  After that i have installed our pilot friend into his seat and masked the canopy (which can be opened and closed at will, even after finishing):

Getting close to the paintbooth now.... stay tuned peeps and thanks for watching

Richard

The mig is looking great!  Keep up the good work!

Kermit I am quite happy to see you chose to build the trolly and show off that engine, would have been unfortunate to hide that fine work.   Now for the markings And hehehe are you going to make a base for it ? Sorry couldnt resist myself there Richard.

Almost there Richard... just about ready for the base coat of whatever NMF you are gonna use.

As a side note here are the markings for the Russian top ace of that war, Col Yevgeni Pepelyaev which he used for 17 of his total of 19 credited kills.

stikpusher cool looking Mig markings.

Kermit Thanks, its helpful to be comfortable scratch building parts. This should be a fun one to pull off.

It was one of them days... took out the canopy to dry fit and discovered the wind screen was deformed from heat!Well not a suprise as the kit was stored to close to a base board heater for a stint untill I found it warm to the touch and decided to store it else wear. Least the rear bubble window wasn't effected.

Anyhow not wanting to fuss with ordering a new clear parts frame I decided to scratch build the wind screen. The obvious way would be to build a template and vacume forum a new part. I found a clear plastic sheet used to seperate tea lights (mini candles) and folded it around the damaged part. Traced the outlines and progressivle trimmed it down. Probally will make another similar one and shape styrene to fit the base around the curvature of the hood.

Supressionfire nice save on the windscreen. Did you use heat to get the bends in it or just fold it over.

Just folded it over. The challenge will be the frame work and the rivet detail. Thinking lead foil will suit the job nicely. Nothing acomplished today as girlfriend and son had a snow day off. Tomorow I should get most of the day to build.

Great save on that Canopy Suppressioinfire! Can't wait to see the next progress pics.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and also the picture of the Mig. I have chosen to finish it in the Korean markings and it looks much the same as the picture, without the red nose.

Yesterday i have completed the NMF spraying job with my trusty airbrush ready Revell paint (same i used before with good results). Didn't want it to be too shiney and this revell paint has a bit of aged "grainy" feel to it.

Will future the lot and start on the decalling. Stay tuned

Richard

P.s.: Randy, i have considered a sort of dio with ground crew but couldn't find any suitable (korean-ish) ground crew stuff at the LHS so i will compromise and finish it like this and put it on my shelf like that.

Question for you though: Now that the end of the GB is nearing i thought i might try to be bold and pop the big question....

Will the NMF GB have a second term???? (just say yes and ill get out of your hair)

One step forward... 3 back!

Was polishing out the canopy rear bubble piece useing automotive medium cut cleaner which worked well then I applied the fine cut cleaner which reacted with the plastic turning it all foggy! In a panic I ran it under the hot water causing a crack! The first option became the last and I spent most of the day rigging up a vacume former. Had almost perfect results yet will run a few more over the origional untill a perfect one is formed.

The clear plastic is the kind toy find candeles packaged in. The debth of the canopy or not being fast enough ment I ran it over 3 times to get a good fourm. Here are a couple of pictures, even considering a vacume formed canopy for mini-Me now

Still decideing if the front windscreen would be easier vacume formed or continue with the bent piece of plastic? If so the 'origional' to form over will need to be scratch built as the kit origional was warped by accident from heat.

Richard if you thought about doing a Koeran War ground scene, ICM makes a set of 1/48 Russian WWII VVS ground personnel. The equipment and uniforms should be the same as it pretty much was for USAF peronnel.

Supressionfire aww man sorry to see your troubles with the canopy fogging on you. However it seems to me maybe you took 3 steps forward in reality. Your new vacuformed canopy looks great, and to build a machine in a day is really fast. Me thinks you will find this lil setback quite usefull in the future. Oh and I dont think anyone makes vacuformed for the 51's in 1/32 scale.

Richard if you thought about doing a Koeran War ground scene, ICM makes a set of 1/48 Russian WWII VVS ground personnel. The equipment and uniforms should be the same as it pretty much was for USAF peronnel.

kermit

Question for you though: Now that the end of the GB is nearing i thought i might try to be bold and pop the big question....

Will the NMF GB have a second term???? (just say yes and ill get out of your hair)

 

Richard In answer to your question, there has been interest in continuing the group and I have been thinking of doing a NMF part 2. This one has been so much fun and has turned out some fantastic builds. What do you guys think shall we do round 2 for another year ?

What do you guys think shall we do round 2 for another year ?

YESSSS!!!!

Hey guys,

Have a yucky post to write.... Randy's mishap with the decals must have triggered something as the decalling on my mig has to be just about the worst modeling experience i ever had...

Sprayed on the NMF.... came out great... futured it...went perfect...

Soooo, filled a cup with warm water and started decalling with the set and sol usual blah blah...

The sheet with the decals already looked a bit yellowish so it must have been a kit that had been sitting there at the LHS for a while, but i never paid much attention to it... WRONG!!!

Almost every single decal that i used broke up the moment i wanted to move it off the sheet or relocate it on the model.

No harm done you think, theres decals for two more versions.... So i removed the decals and resprayed the mig with aluminum.

Just took off the masking of the canopy and the one decal that survived my clumsiness and yes, that decal broke up when i gently tore off the masking tape...

So, to make a long story short, i kinda had it with this model for now... so im gonna put it away for a bit and order some decals once i have the mood to finish her up. Calling this one quits for now; my sincere apologies....

Richard

Kermit now thats a bummer, I know just how you feel Rchard. Best to walk away from it for a few days then come back to it.

I got my new decals from Testers yesterday, a huge thank you goes out to them. Sent an email to them lastweek and didnt hear back from them so I thought oh well. Anyway they are here and free of charge too. So I removed the torn decal and applied some future over the spot where the new decal will go, will let that dry and apply the new decal tonight. I should be able to call the Starfighter finished tomorrow afternoon.

Well after two months of no real progress on my Thunderjet as of today I have finished all the interior painting I need to do before putting the fuselage halves together. Within the past week I applied a wash then did some dry brushing of a lighter green over the interior green and some aluminum on high use areas and console switches. I used an off white dry brushing over instrument faces then applied a drop of Testors' clear glue to each instrument dial. I found some WW2 PE seat belts that I painted up and added to the ejection seat so tomorrow I will get some pics done prior to further assembly, then get it all glued together. I should have pics up tomorrow evening.

Here is the ejections seat. I need to touch up the seat belts, but otherwise all is ready on it. The other pics I took of the cockpit came out poorly so I will take new one tomorrow and get them posted.

Hi all,

I thought I'd give a progress update on my Revell 1/48 Mustang P-51D. The fuselage is assembled, the wings and stablizers in place, and the canopy is masked and partly in place. The landing gear and inside of doors are painted and washed. The propeller is painted. I've decided to build the Miss Marilyn II version of the kit, which is not the box art version. The version features a mostly dark green topside and metal finish elsewhere. Instead of used the provided decals, I've choosen to paint the red fuselage stripe and the black wing stripes.

The colors I'm using are:

• NMF Base: Alclad Gloss Black Base (ALC305)
• Non-NMF Base: Plastikote Gray Sandable Primer
• Fuselage/Wings/Stabilizers: Topside - MM Enamel Euro Dark Green (FS34092), Elsewhere - Alclad II Aluminum (ALC101) with selected panels highlighted in Alclad II Dark Aluminum (ALC103)
• Rudder: MM Enamel Gelb (RLM 04)
• Fuselage Stripe: Tamiya Acrylic Flat Red (XF-7)
• Wing Stripes: MM Enamel Flat Black (FS37038)
• Propeller: MM Enamel Flat Black (FS37038) with MM Enamel Gelb (RLM 04) tips
• Spinner: MM Enamel Gelb (RLM 04), green mixture (10 p Tamiya Acrylic Green X-5, 6 p Tamiya Acrylic Flat White XF-2, 1 p Tamiya Acrylic Flat Yellow XF-3)*
• Zinc Chromates: MM Acryl Green Zinc Chromate, MM Acryl Yellow Zinc Chromate
• Landing Gear Struts: Tamiya Acrylic Flat Aluminum XF-16

* This seems close enough, but not an exact match for the green on the green/yellow checkerboard decal. Does anyone know of an exact match?

The photo shows where I am now, which is, about to paint the dark green and the NMF.

Much better luck with photos today.

an overall view of the cockpit parts  and fuselage sides

A view of the tub

instrument panel

and a few views of the tub with the IP and seat in place

Hi Nicefit --

This is a marvelous subject, one I've had a hankering to do for ages, the markings of the 343rd may very well be some of the most attractive Mustangs ever carried.

She's looking good! One item you might double-check, I'm sure the upper fuselage was standard WWII USAAF Olive Drab (34079) -- this is the paint reference given by AeroMaster on sheet 48-739, which features markings for this squadron.

Cheers, looking forward to seeing this one come together!

Mike/TB379

PS: I got a coat of metallic on my Thunderjet a few days ago, it should be hardened off for handling by now, will post a pic asap.

Fuselage is glued together. Tomorrow morning I will start working on sanding and filling the seams. Starting to look like a Thunderjet now...

Stikpusher that office is looking really really good and that ejection seat is a prize. I really like the way you have the harness hanging. Looking forward to seeing more, and am glad to see you making progress.

Nicefit Oh I am liking the markings you have choosen, and I like the fact that you have decided to paint the red stripe especially. I have seen the decal stripe done but think the paint will look much better for some reason. Nice to have you back and making progress too. Oh and the antiglare panel on that one should be OD if memmory serves me right.

Hats off and attaboys to both Stikpusher and Nicefit! That's the better pit work and that paintjob on the stang is going to look gforgeous! Can't wait to see the progress pics; nothing better than look at good modeling during my morning coffee.

While i am on a "Mig vacation" i have been pondering over a next NMF project... Right now i am very busy on my 1:72 submarine for the sub GB but there's always some time left on the side for my NMF models. Would love to do a thunderbolt or B17 in 1:48...

Richard

Thunderbolt - Thank you for your comment on my build. The Revell instructions indicated FS34092 so that's what I applied. I didn't see your post until after the FS34092 was already on. Btw, the green color that my post was asking about was the not the upper fuselage color, but rather, the green color that is part of the checkboard and front spinner, which is not the same as the upper fuselage color.

Vetteman - Thanks! Funny thing is that I HAD to paint the red stripe as a decal was NOT provided for this paint scheme. (Red stripes are provided for the all-metal Big Beautiful Doll version shown on the box art.) Decals were provided for the black stripes on the wings, but I choose to paint those as well.

Kermit - Thanks!

All - I painted the FS34092 upper fuselage color and prepped the rest of the plane for the NMF finish. The prep work included going over the surfaces one more time with plastic polish and cleaner. The plastic polish gives a great, smooth finish BUT almost too smooth for masking tape to adhere. I'm having difficulty masking the red stripe (this is a re-do because part of the mask lifted) and the green/NMF border on the underside of the plane. Once I can get the tape to stick, I will seal the mask edges with some Future.

Hey Kermit -  If you decide to do a NMF B-17, be sure you have plenty of paint.  Mine took over 1 1/2 bottles of the MM Alunimum Metalizer paint, but these big birds sure stand out with there NMF!

B17Pilot

Hey Kermit -  If you decide to do a NMF B-17, be sure you have plenty of paint.  Mine took over 1 1/2 bottles of the MM Alunimum Metalizer paint, but these big birds sure stand out with there NMF!

Totally agree there B17Pilot. My C47 in 1/48 took almost a whole spraycan of metal paint too... Well aware of it, thanks

The only problem, and i have notified our host of this  (and he approved...), is that the B17 in 1/48th that i have in my stash is the RoG "memphis belle" kit, which is/ was a B17F. Well informed modelers will now raise their eyebrows as the B17F for the most part never received the NMF finish... So in a way this would be a "what if" bomber if i decided to go for that project.

Richard

A couple of the F models where stripped of paint, upon conversion to a VIP transport aircraft for Generals, you could do that, but anyway, its your to paint it any way you want.

Of course you could get a G

Stikpusher I ment to ask, did you hand paint your IP ? Looks really good however you did it.

Kermit I have seen a few NMF B-17 models and leme tell ya they looked really sweet and hey who says you cant do a what-if anyways. Most all my builds are what-if's. Man looks like I am commited to host NMF Part Duce

Ok guys I am finally able to call The F-104c Starfighter finished. The markings are from the 497th TFW George AFB, California. As I told in an earlier story I chose these markings because they were so friendly at George when I got flight following with them. I also chose the aircraft as my first jet build because my Father worked on them when they were in development at Lockheed, later I made parts for them as a machinist. I also got hold of a 1/48 Revell F-14A Tomcat I want to build for the same reason, we both worked on them. But that will be a differant story, now back to the Starfighter. Here she is and I hope you like her.

Now for showing off a bit of scratch building. This has been my first serious attempt at this fine art.

The ejection seat thru a suprisingly clear canopy

And the really big experiment the stainless steel foil used around the engine heat shield panels

I want to thank you all for your kind words, and helpful opinions during this build. I know I drove a few nuts with questions.

Vette, your Starfighter looks VERY nice! And yes I did handpaint my instrument panel. A basecoat of Flat Black, then dry brush with ivory over the instrument gage dials. Some ares in red based on a few cockpit photos, then Testors clear glue on the dials for the glass faces.

Randy,

Congrats on what turned out to be a really really sweet starfighter. I really like these markings you chose (and the story behind you picking it). Your build shows the effort and hard work you have put into it. Well done me matey arrrr!

Looking this good i have to ask you: I know you have done a few of these testors kits. How do you feel about them in terms of looking like the real thing/ fitting of parts....blah blah? I saw their mustang and thunderbolt on a local hobbyshopping site and must say that the prices at least are very very interesting. 

Whatsnextwhatsnextwhatsnextwhatsnext???

Richard (who gets the hint to build the B17 first)